Brandi Carlile has been penning top-tier Americana tunes since the early ‘00s, and she's earned a reputation as one of the genre's most powerful songwriters. The delicate “Josephine”, with its carefully placed harmonies, cuts to the heart with deep yearning. “Mainstream Kid” wallops with a vicious, bluesy riff. Her love songs are almost unrivalled in poignancy, too—just check out the melancholy “I Belong to You”, with its ghostly pedal steel.